The St. John Bosco football team is 12-0 and three wins away from its second national title. The top-ranked team in the country has defeated its first two playoff opponents by a combined margin of 105-6 and has scored at least 49 points in its last four games.

But even as the Braves prepare to face Oaks Christian in the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 semifinals on Friday, head coach Jason Negro still believes his team has not played its best football.

“We’re not there yet; I still think we have a long ways to go until we play our best game,” Negro explained. “The better opponents that we play as we move through this will only bring out the best in our team, as well.

“That’s a scary thing when you think about it.”

As far as facing improved opponents, Oaks Christian will be the best team the Braves have faced in the postseason. The Lions are ranked fourth in the state by MaxPreps.com and 19th nationally by MaxPreps’ Xcellent 25 poll.

What Negro wants to see from his team this week is to eliminate silly penalties; in the playoff opener against Serra, the Braves drew nine flags. Negro credited some of these penalties to how dominant Bosco has been, skewing how officials view hard plays on the field.

As for what Bosco can control, Negro pointed to some dropped balls and missed assignments last week against San Clemente.

“There’s some areas that we can fix, like missed tackles,” Negro said. “Especially against a team likes Oaks, where their quarterback and running back are so big and physical you need more than one guy to bring them down.”

This week, in a game that will be played at Royal High in Simi Valley after a change in venue due to seating capacity, the primary concern for Bosco is stopping Oaks Christian’s run game. Michigan commit Zach Charbonnet leads the Lions with 1,676 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns despite missing two games this season.

Oaks Christian as a whole averages 233.6 rushing yards per game, but it’s the future Wolverine and his ability to make plays out of the backfield and after contact that concerns the Braves.

“If you don’t make that initial tackle, he can break things and take off,” Negro said.

One area where Bosco thinks it can take advantage of Oaks Christian is its depth. The Lions have just 66 players on the roster, several who are on the field for both offense and defense.

Linemen play on both sides of the ball. Even quarterback Josh Calvert plays linebacker, too.

Bosco wants to make the game a fast-paced affair to exploit these tired legs.

“It’s a huge advantage that we have a lot of depth,” Negro said. “If we’re able to wear these guys down a little bit and play with a lot of tempo, I think that’s going to give us an advantage in the fourth quarter.”

The Lions will deal with an extra disadvantage, too. Five-star senior defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux is suspended for the semifinals after being ejected from the quarterfinal win over JSerra.

Thibodeaux has 18 of Oaks Christian’s 47 sacks this season, but Negro says the Lions shouldn’t be too hampered by his absence.

“It’s not going to change much,” Negro said. “It’s not like they change in terms of schematics. It’s the same kind of approach defensively, you’re just dealing with a little bit different athlete.”

Regardless, what this season has proven is that Bosco merely needs to worry about its own play. The Braves’ lowest margin of victory came in September in a seven-point win over JSerra. Since then, the closest any team came was then-No. 1 Mater Dei in a 23-point Bosco win.

And yet, the Braves don’t believe they’ve played their best football yet. And that should put a shiver in any future opponent.

Adam Grosbard covers USC athletics for the Orange County Register and Southern California News Group. He's previously covered SMU athletics and the WNBA for the Dallas Morning News and high school sports for the Long Beach Press-Telegram. A Pasadena native, he currently lives in the South Bay.

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